Playing Pretend
by Canadino
Summary: Each knows the other likes them, but, as expected of boys their age, they won't admit anything if it happened to be true. 8059


**Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the story idea and only some of the witty remarks. I own so little; so please don't steal.**

Background music: -

Playing Pretend

_Gokudera_

A right-hand man, the number one henchman of a famalia's mafioso, has to be aware of his surroundings at all times. To serve the Tenth with the best of my abilities, I've been honing my skill of observation and diligence since I was summoned by him. I think he will be very impressed. I've managed to find out a bunch about the company the Tenth holds; for example, Hibari Kyouya naps at exactly eleven-fifty-two in the morning and despite his scary demeanor, he does not wake up even if you threw pebbles at him (this has been proven, at a safe distance, of course). Sasagawa Ryohei practices boxing in the school gym before school, in between third and fourth period, during lunch, after school, and jogs back home. There are more, but I hesitate to say them, lest I come off as a stalker. It's not stalking; it's detailed research of our future allies.

Unfortunately, for all this observation, I've stumbled upon a rather unsavory piece of information: Yamamoto Takeshi has a crush on me.

I am so detailed and meticulous on all my notes, so I cannot possibly have gotten this wrong. Here is my evidence. I've seen him lurk around watching me. He has stayed after school for more than half of the school days, claiming to want to 'walk home with Tsuna' when in fact, the Tenth has already gotten home. I thought this was ignorance on his part, but while staking out in a classroom, I saw him bid the Tenth farewell before lingering around. When I saw him later on that day, he fed me some cock-and-bull story about how he had to clean his classroom because the one assigned had something to do and he was only helping a friend, and while he was staying behind, was Tsuna in detention? On these days, he proceeds to walk home with me, because obviously if the Tenth was not here, I was the next best thing.

Not only that, but he treats me differently from everyone else. With Tsuna, he is full of grins and talk and there is never an awkward moment between them. With me, he passes the time smiling at me and staring at me like some kind of prized specimen. He makes blunt comments and waits for my reaction. He asks me to watch his baseball games, to visit his dad's place, to go buy school supplies with him. He doesn't ask the Tenth this (and this is good, because a Mafioso cannot be inconvenienced by such stupid outings). He only asks _me_.

Therefore, the only sensible conclusion: Yamamoto is infatuated with me.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not so full of myself that I consider whoever pays attention to me as their form of attraction toward me. I know my way around human behavior and while there are other people who are close to me, they do not act like Yamamoto. He does not blush like a girl or act embarrassed; but you can tell these sort of things.

I am unsure of how to proceed with his information.

I could call him out on it; but then the ball would technically be in my court. I have an undying devotion to the Tenth, but I do not know how I stand on the Yamamoto-issue. I cannot tell lies to him because they will go to his head and there will certainly be talk. I cannot tell him I do not like him because even I do not know if it's true or not. So I will pretend I do not know anything about it. I will pretend that I don't know something he does. If someone is going to act on this, it will be him, because then he will have put himself out on a ledge. A right hand man has to be on stable, sturdy ground at all times. He's got to keep his head. I can do that.

_Yamamoto_

I know I'm not very smart. I mean, all I really know how to do is play baseball. And use a sword, I guess. But I'm much better at baseball. Anyway, I'm not the brightest tool (or is it the sharpest tool, and the brightest light bulb?) in the crayon box (wait, I know I got that wrong that time…), but when I know something, when my gut tells me something, I listen. My pop says you've always got to listen to your gut, because it's the best thing you've got. And my gut tells me that Gokudera likes me.

It was something I stumbled upon by accident. I saw him a couple of times watching other people and writing down stuff in that notebook of his. I mean, I didn't think Gokudera dealt in blackmail. He gets up to pretty sketchy stuff, but even that was a little extreme. I don't like my friends dealing with illegal stuff, so I decided to see what he was up to. He only seemed to be watching our group of friends, so I didn't think it was anything bad.

Then, recently, I noticed he was turning his eyes on me. Gokudera's never really liked me much, although I'm always nice to him. I thought it was a bit odd, like he was scrutinizing me or something. But my gut (it's pretty trustworthy, trust me!) said it wasn't that; and I didn't feel any sort of threat, so I just tried to figure out why he was acting so weird.

I…might have mentioned this to my pop, using vague terms, and he asked me if the person in question was a girl, and if she was a cute girl, because if she was, I should ask her out because obviously she was waiting for that to happen.

Did Gokudera like me? I decided that the only way detectives work is through tailing their suspect. So I started staying after school to see if Gokudera acted odd then, like rooting through my desk or my cubby (it wouldn't surprise me if he did). He called me out on it a couple times so I had to make up an excuse that I was waiting for Tsuna, which was stupid because I knew he wasn't there but I hoped Gokudera didn't know that. I mean, I'm not going to say, _nope, I'm still here because I want to know if you like me_! I'm pretty forward, but even I know it's not okay to just bluntly say things like that.

Then I tried talking to him. When I do, he always snaps at me and tries to change the subject. When I watch him, he gets uncomfortable and tries to distract me with something else. I'm not saying I read shoujo manga, but isn't those signs basically telltale symptoms of love? I think so. I consulted with a couple of my teammates and they agreed, although I didn't specify who was the person in question. I didn't want the word to get out that I suspected Gokudera was interested in me.

So that was that.

I don't actually know what to do with that sort of thing. Like I said before, I'm not smart. Gokudera's the smart one, no matter how you look at it. I can't just ask him what to do in a situation like that – he's smart enough to figure out what I'm talking about. We're friends, but I don't know if I consider him as anything _more_. That's totally game with me, though. I believe anyone can find love with anyone. And as long as you're honest with yourself, everything will be okay. And quite honestly, even if we _did_ get in a relationship, I've still got baseball so we couldn't go on any dates or whatever he'd want to do. Italians do that, right? Go on dates and be romantic? Us Japanese aren't so affectionately inclined. Giving White Day gifts back makes me sheepish.

And anyway, if I said anything, he'd probably deny it or get uncomfortable. I hate having people feel uncomfortable around me. I like having people happy! So I won't say anything. I'll pretend I don't know until I figure out how I feel or until he decides to say something about it, whichever comes first. It's okay like that, right? Not knowing is better, but pretending not to know is the next best thing, right?

So until then, we'll just walk home together and I'll steal a drag off his cigarette and he'll watch my games while pretending that he's not and that I don't know because it'll all be okay. It always is.

Owari

Note: Lack of inclination to work coupled with my absence from this fandom squeezed out this awkward piece of sheet cake. I really love tsundere characters. That is no excuse for a half-assed job, though! If you actually enjoyed this, I'd love to know why. I wonder myself. **Edit**: decided to totally obliterate my formatting so the break between character POV was deleted...so yeah.


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